Retirement Age of Central Government Employees Controversy Begins Again

Retirement Age Controversy Begins Again

“Retirement age for Central Government employees is 60 years now. It was raised to 60 from 58 in 1998 when the then NDA Government led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee”

Last year, there were rumours that the centre was planning to raise the retirement age from 60 to 62. This time, retirement age makes headlines one again that the superannuation age may be decreased to 58.

Last week the most popular website for CG Employees, www.gservants.com has published an article about the recommendations of 7th CPC, as unconfirmed news. In this, 7th CPC may recommend for reduce in age of retirement of CG Employees will be in two criteria. The retirement age as the completion of 33 years of service, or at the age of 60, whichever comes first. The panic was further increased by similar claims on Facebook and Whatsapp also, because the criteria for retirement as at the age of 58 or completion of 33 years.

If an employee joins central government services at the age of 27, he would complete 33 years of service at the age of 60. If he had joined the services before the age of 27, his position becomes tricky. If someone joins the central government services soon after graduation, at the age of 20, he will be forced to retire at the age of 53.

On the internet, this condition was distorted as 33 years of service or 58 years of age, whichever comes first. This caused great worry to all because the 60/33 rule would affect only those who had joined the service before the age of 26, but the 58/33 rule would lead to all those who had joined after the age of 28 to lose two years of service. Also worth noticing is the fact that the service period is very short in such cases.

Nobody is sure yet if the 7th Pay Commission will include the recommendations on retirement age in its report to the government. But, discussions were held on this issue. There is no information about when the decision will be implemented.

Before May 1998 – 58 Years
After May 1998 – 60 Years
Reducing 60 to 58 is like ‘losing the sword and growing the tail.’

The BJP seems to have invited the wrath of central government employees living in the national capital with some of its non-populist measures.

With early trends in Delhi suggesting a complete rout for the BJP barely eight months after it swept the national capital in the Lok Sabha polls, party strategists say the party paid a heavy price because of government workers’ worries.

There are about seven lakh central government employees in Delhi – 30% of them women – and party strategists fear other voters in these families also voted against the BJP.

The Narendra Modi government’s decision on biometric attendance making it mandatory for government employees to mark their attendance sharply at 9 in the morning upset women employees, a union minister said.

“During campaigning for Delhi elections, we realised that women employees were upset as it was becoming difficult for them to manage household affairs and reach office sharply at 9 am. They were clearly against us,” the minister told HT.

The BJP’s campaign managers, including several senior ministers, tried to address fears that the retirement age of government workers would be reduced to 58 from 60.

Retirement Age from 60 to 58: Whatsapp message leaves government in tizzy; inquiry started

Whatsapp message leaves government in tizzy; inquiry started: The Economic Times

NEW DELHI: The Government on Thursday was left in a tizzy over what its officials described as a “deliberate mischief” in form of a widely circulated message on Whatsapp that the Union Government had decided to reduce the retirement age of central government employees from 60 to 58 years.

The message also cited a purported answer given by the Ministry of Personnel in Parliament on December 11 to say that the government will bring a bill in Parliament in February-March 2015 to reduce the retirement age to 58. The government has now begun an inquiry to trace the person who circulated this wrong message as it caused considerable confusion among the bureaucracy and the political class as the purported move to reduce the retirement age was reported by some television channels as well as posted widely on social networking websites. Urban Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu had to get up in Parliament on Thursday afternoon to deny any such move to reduce the retirement age and posted the same on his Twitter account. Minister of State for Personnel, Jitendra Singh, who had answered a question in Parliament on Thursday saying there was no move to reduce the retirement age, had to make a statement to Doordarshan and ANI in the evening to set the record straight. The Press Information Bureau (PIB) sent out multiple messages and also issued an official statement in the night saying there was no such proposal.

A senior government official said a probe has been necessitated to trace out the offender as a parliament reply given earlier by the Ministry of Personnel on December 11 had been twisted and a wrong picture painted of the contents of the said reply in the widely circulated WhatsApp message. On December 11, the Ministry of Personnel was in fact asked if there was a move to increase the retirement age from 60 to 62. The Ministry replied that there was no such move. But the said Whatsapp message said the Ministry was asked on December 11 was whether the retirement age would be reduced from 60 to 58 and claimed the government had answered in the affirmative and also said a bill will be brought to Parliament in February-March 2015 for the same. “This is a completely wrong message and a deliberate mischief by someone,” a senior government official said, adding that an inquiry has been started to trace out the said person.

The Centre has clarified in the Parliament that there are no plans to reduce the retirement age for Central Government employees. The Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh had said this via a written reply to a query in Rajya Sabha yesterday.

The Minister has already clarified that there are no plans to increase the retirement age to 62 in Rajya Sabha on 11th December 2014.

This puts to rest speculations that had been making the rounds for a number of weeks now.

The Minister also presented the details of the money spent as payment for the Central Government employees. According to his reply, Rs. 85,963.5 crores was spent in 2010-11; Rs.92,264.88 was spent in 2011-12; and Rs. 1,04,759.71 was spent in 2012-2013 for payments to employees of various Central Government organizations running all over the country.

To the question raised by Mr. Sardar Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, Dr. T. Subbarami Reddy and Mrs. Ambika Soni, Minister Dr. Jitendra Singh said that as per the recommendations of the 5th Pay Commission in 1997, the retirement age of Central Government employees was raised from 58 to 60.

The Pay Commission has the power to recommend an increase or decrease in the retirement age for Central Government employees. Will the 7th Pay Commission make any recommendation in this regard?